NOTES ON SOME OF OUR BRITISH MAMMALS, 13 
arrival of the Brown Rat in this country is 1728, since in 
its great migration westward from Asia, it only crossed the 
Volga into Europe in 1727, it must soon have discovered 
that the County of Stafford was a place congenial to its 
habits, and at once entered upon a warfare of extermination 
against the creature it found in possession. 
Turning now to the Voles: The Short-tailed Field Vole 
(Microtus agrestis), and the Water Vole, commonly called the 
Water Rat (Micvotus amphibius), are both abundant, whilst 
the other British species-—the Red Bank Vole (Microtus 
glaveolus) is probably far more common than is generally 
believed. First reported from this district by the Rev. 
H. H. Crewe, in the “ Zoologist”’ for 1863, from specimens 
obtained at Calke Abbey, this species will possibly prove 
as wide-spread as Agyvestis: at all events it comes as near to 
Burton as the Field Vole, for I have notes of the occur- 
rence of both at Horninglow. 
Of the Leporidae, the Hare (Lepus ewvopeus) and the 
Rabbit (Lepus cuniculus) are both abundant and generally 
distributed. 
We now come to the Hoofed Mammals or Urgulata, and 
of these we can claim all the British members for our list. 
The famous Wild White Cattle (Bos tawrus), of Chartley, 
may well be looked upon as the pride of the district, since 
Chartley Park is one of the few British parks in which the 
remnants of the herds of wild cattle which formerly wan- 
dered at will through British forests are still preserved. 
The original stock from which the herd at Chartley is 
descended were conveyed from Needwood Forest, then a 
haunt of wild cattle, by William, Earl of Derby, and their 
descendants have been carefully preserved pure by the 
succeeding Earls Ferrers. The herd now numbers about 
40 individuals; the number in the even more celebrated 
herd of the Earl of Tankerville, at Chillingham, being 75. 
All the three species of British Deer formerly roamed 
